Chapter 18: Don't Date Me, I Faint

Disclaimer: I don't own Chrno Crusade or any of the characters!!

Shooooort chapter. Hopefully with some inspiration this thing can be revived?

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"Azzy!" Rosette screeched the moment she got her best friend alone. "How could you do this to me?"

"I got you a date with the most popular guy in school," Azmaria pointed out calmly, flopping onto a chair. "Look at it this way; no one'll dare to even touch you once it gets around that Chrno's interested in you."

"I don't WANT to go on a date!"

Azmaria got this strange glint in her eye, flinty and unyielding. "Rosette. This is for your own good. He's picking you up at seven o'clock tonight for a nice date at the amusement park. You will go and enjoy yourself, and stop stressing yourself out."

"I-" Rosette started to protest, then shut her mouth at the look on Azmaria's face. The younger girl could be scary if she really wanted to be.

-

Four hours later she was shoved into a pink skirt, fluttery blouse, and makeup courtesy of Azmaria. Rosette didn't know how Azmaria knew how to apply all those cosmetics; she certainly didn't and she was older than Azzy! And pink! Pink! This was so terrible.

With fifteen minutes to go and nothing to do, butterflies started in her stomach. Why did Chrno even want to go on a date with her? They hadn't exactly had a good relationship by any means. This was so messed up, and she said so out loud.

Azzy whacked her over the head with the hairbrush she had been using on Rosette's hair and told her that he had just been pulling her pigtails all along. Rosette didn't believe the other girl for a second, but she let it slide. No time to argue with…oh no, ten minutes left…

The clock on the wall was making her nervous. Tick tick, it said. Tickticktick I'm ticking away your time killing you slowly death ticks closer…

"Rosette!"

"Rosette!"

Azmaria?

Rosette jerked upright and smacked her forehead into someone else's. She heard a groan.

She looked around wildly, and there was Azzy, grabbing onto her arm and keeping her grounded in a spinning world that slowly settled back into reality. A set of crimson eyes blinked at her, worry evident.

No. Two pairs of crimson eyes. Azzy.

And Chrno.

She yelped, and promptly went head over heels, tumbling off the chair she had been on.

What the…

"Are you alright?" Azzy's voice, but it was definitely not Azzy's arm that reached for her. Azmaria's hands were pale and smaller than her own. This one dwarfed hers and was a tanned gold.

"Ah…I'm fine." Scrambling up ungainly, ignoring the hand Chrno had extended to help her up, she twirled around in an attempt to prove her words. "See?"

"Maybe we shouldn't go for the date tonight," Chrno said, frown lines wrinkling his forehead. "She doesn't seem fine to me."

"I'm fine!" Rosette insisted. What was it with Chrno anyway? Wasn't he the one who wanted her to go on a date with him?

"You zoned out, Rosette," he said steadily, red eyes boring into her own blue ones. "People who are 'fine' don't do that."

"I'm fine," she repeated firmly, but on the inside she didn't feel so sure. What did he mean, she had zoned out? All she had been doing was to stare at the clock…

The clock. A bright, golden one, both beautiful and ugly. Why?

Rosette looked again. No, the mantelpiece clock was still the boring grey one. Was there…something wrong with her?

She really hoped not.